


Two Halves of a Whole

by YukinaMizuki



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - School, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Romance, Two pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28977081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukinaMizuki/pseuds/YukinaMizuki
Summary: Matsumoto Jun was born with a weak body hence he need to stay in the hospital. After the surgery, he finally at least can do daily activity like normal people do, but because he stayed in the hospital for years he never had friend around his age and that makes Jun lonely. That's when Jun's father decided to introduce Jun to his friend's son, Sakurai Sho.(Basically a story of how Puppy!Jun x Protective!Sho realize how they actually love each other more than they thought)
Relationships: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Two Halves of a Whole

**Author's Note:**

> At first I want to post this after I write the prologue and the 1st chapter, but I thought since it's Sho's birthday why not? XD  
> I hope you enjoy this ^^

###  **Sho’s Side**

Sakurai Sho was 9 years old when he met Matsumoto Jun for the first time.

Sho’s father, Sakurai Shun, is the owner of a well-known Kendo * _Dojo_ in Japan, also a former champion. His father has wanted him to follow his step in Kendo, which he willingly does because he ends up liking the sport since the first time his father has introduced him to it.

Sho was taking a break from training in the Dojo when his father suddenly asked him to go with him to meet his father’s high school friend, to be exact to meet the son who is one year younger than him.

Little Sho at the time was the best at Kendo among his peers, that has made him have this weird sense of pride, thinking that he is a cool kid who is too cool to play with kids younger than him and he often refused whenever his little sister or brother asked him to play with them. (He actually loves both of them dearly, but little Sho won’t admit it). So, Sho being Sho, didn’t want to go at first. He had a feeling that he would just end up being asked to play with the other boy.

Sho tried to refuse with an excuse that he had to do a training because the competition has been near. Sho thought he was a genius to came up with such excuse, even though he was taking a break just before his father come. However, as if his father could read his mind, his father ~~bribed~~ offered him that they would go to eat some shellfish this weekend if only Sho would agree to come with him.

Sho had a change of heart just in a second.

He thought it wouldn’t hurt to play with his father friend’s son just for a while, if in return he could eat his favorite shellfish. Who knows, maybe that kid turned out to be a cool kid like him. There must be a reason why his father would go out of his way to introduce the two of them.

-

With his father owning a Dojo that connected to his house, plus the small backyard, he can say that his house is big compared to his friend’s house that he has visited before. Nevertheless, Sho found himself out of word when they arrived in front of the house of his father’s friend, or to be exact, the GATE of their house. This one is on a different level compared to any other house that Sho has ever seen before. He couldn’t even see the house from where he was sitting in a car, waiting for his father to ring a bell on the gate wall to inform the owner of the house that the two of them have just arrived there. He could only see lots of tree and a street leading to somewhere, probably the house. It was like those big houses he saw in a drama or movie.

His father got back into the car and the gate started to open by itself.

Actually, Sho wouldn’t stop talking on the way here, making sure his father remember his promise for eating some shellfish together this weekend. But now Sho still haven’t said a word since his father has gotten back inside the car and their car has started to move again. He was busy looking at trees and wondering just how large this place is. Sho’s father chuckled looking at his awestruck son. Hearing the sound of his father’s chuckle, Sho comes out of his mind back into the reality and look at his father.

“Sho-chan, have you heard about Matsumoto Corporation before?”

Sho doesn’t have any interest other than Kendo at the time. Sho wouldn’t say that he is knowledgeable about this stuff, but even he knows the name.

One time when he was learning how to take care of his own * _Shinai_ , he saw the ‘Matsumoto Corporation’ logo on it. It was a picture of a Raven with a word of ‘Matsumoto’ written below to it. Then, he has started to notice that actually most of the equipment in his family Dojo have the same logo on them.

“Of course! The equipments in our Dojo have that name written on them!”

“You see, the owner of this big house is the owner of that Corporation, and the one who makes the equipments in our Dojo.”

“Wow... That’s so cool! Your friend is so amazing, Dad!”

“I know right,” said Sho’s father as he chuckled again.

They finally arrived in front of the main house and got out of the car. A butler greeted them there, which Sho said immediately, “A real butler!” while pointing at the person. Sho’s father only look at the butler with an apologetic smile which then the butler returned with a warm and understanding smile.

The butler led them to come inside the house and Sho couldn’t help himself but looking around the house. Everything in this house started to look cool in Sho’s eyes. Even if Sho’s house is quite big, it is still like a regular Japanese style house. On the contrary, this house looks nothing like the house in Japan and more to the western style. It is a whole new experience for Sho to be in this kind of place.

They were brought to a room looking like a living room but actually too big to be a living room. It has two sofas and a table located between the two items, also some expensive-looking painting and vases. They sat on the sofa and the butler went out of the room to make them some tea.

Right after the butler left the room, his father immediately looked at him and told him gently. “Now Sho, we will meet my friend and his son soon. I want you to be polite and not to do anything rude, okay?”

Alright, pointing at the butler earlier perhaps was not a good idea. His father usually drops his nickname only when he is really talking about something serious. Even if his father sounds gentle when saying that, Sho knows better than to make his father angry.

“Okay, Dad.”

“Good.”

The butler returned back with the tea and left them again. Not long after that the door opened again and a man a bit taller than his father came in. His father immediately stood up and Sho followed him. Sho feels a bit intimidated at the man’s strong face at first, but when he smiles while looking at Sho’s father, Sho has changed his mind.

His father and the man exchanged greeting and asked each other how they were doing lately. Then, his father put his hand on Sho’s back and introduced him to the man. “Matsumoto, this is my son, Sho.”

Sho who remembered what his father said about being polite, immediately introduces himself while bowing a little, “Nice to meet you Matsumoto-san, I’m Sakurai Sho.”

“You have a nice manner. Nice to meet you Sho-kun, I’m Matsumoto Junichi,” said Matsumoto and smiled gently at Sho. “I want you to meet my son.”

Then a boy appeared behind Matsumoto and Matsumoto introduces the boy to Sho, “Jun, this is my friend’s son, Sho.”

When Sho saw Jun, his eyes widen a bit and he can’t help but thought,

_(“What… is this creature?”)_

Sho actually started to look forward to meeting this other kid since he saw the house, the son of the owner of this cool house must be cool too, right? However, he never expected the kid to look like… this.

Sho knows it is not good to called Jun as a ‘creature,’ but the impression that Jun gives is so different from other kids around his age. As much as Sho doesn’t want to admit it, Jun looks so cute in Sho’s eyes. Sho himself is actually quite small compared to his peers, but Jun is even smaller than him. He’s so thin that even when the feature on his faces is actually quite strong like his father (but a bit pale) it didn’t help much, as he still looks somehow weak. He looks so vulnerable, but at the same time, his eyes that are looking at Sho, radiates so much honesty and innocence, making people can’t help but want to adore and spoil him.

Sho didn’t realize that he was completely staring at Jun until Jun has finally decided to introduce himself to him.

“I-I’m Jun.”

(“ _He spoke!”)_

Sho felt stupid for thinking such way, like of course Jun can obviously speak.

Sho doesn’t know why, but there is just something about Jun that makes him feel interested. Sho wanted to know more about Jun, even when all the things Jun has said so far is basically only his own name.

Nevertheless, what caught Sho’s attention more than anything at this moment is Jun’s cheeks. It is so chubby!

Sho likes to pinch his younger sibling’s cheeks when they were little (not too strong that would make them cry, but it felt nice to do it according to Sho), and now he has a strong urge to do the same thing to Jun’s cheeks.

Sho feels like he was possessed, forgetting what his father has told him earlier about not being rude, as he walked forward until he stood in front of Jun and pulled Jun’s cheek, surprising Jun and the two adults beside him.

“Sho?!”

Sho heard his father’s surprised voice but he found himself didn’t care at all about that or the consequence that would come after that. He just focused on feeling Jun’s cheeks with his hand. Jun cheeks is stretched because Sho is pulling it, which makes him look like a hamster. Sho wonders if he could stretch Jun’s cheeks more, so Sho pulls it a bit harder.

“Ow…”

Sho finally came out of his trance when he heard Jun makes a sound like he’s in pain. He finally let go of Jun’s cheeks and put his hands on Jun’s shoulder. Sho didn’t say any apology at all and instead uttered his impression of doing the thing he had done to Jun earlier, as if he had found the most interesting thing in the world. “Your cheeks are so soft!”

When Sho saw that Jun looked dumbfounded like he could not believe what Sho had just done and said, Sho finally realized what he just did and let go of Jun’s shoulder and took a step back behind as an extra caution. He looked at his father and just like he imagined, his father looked like he was ready to snap at him for being so rude to someone he had just met. However, before his father could force him to apologize, a sound of someone laughing could be heard in the room.

The sound is too high for an adult and it’s not from Sho. Sho looked at the other person other than himself who could make such a sound, and there he was.

Jun, with his reddening cheeks because of Sho’s deeds in pinching them, was laughing.

He was laughing like he just saw something funny, and as much as Sho wanted to thank him for getting his father’s attention, Sho looked at him weirdly. Sho, whom he had just met for the very first time, just pinched his cheeks quite hard, but Jun’s reaction was laughing?

After Jun stopped laughing, he looked at Sho with tears on the side of his eyes because of laughing too much, and smiled sweetly towards him. “Nice to meet you, Sho-kun.”

At that moment, something within Sho felt pulled to Jun more than ever. He was already interested in Jun to begin with, but seeing him smile just makes the feeling stronger than ever. Jun is not the type of kid whom Sho usually associated himself with, not what Sho would describe as the ‘cool kid’. However, Sho didn’t care. He didn’t care whether Jun is weak or strong.

_(“I want to protect him._

_I want to see him smile.”)_

is the only thing that has crossed his mind when he saw Jun smile, and he swears to himself that he would do just that.

###  **Jun’s Side**

Matsumoto Jun was 8 years old when he met Sakurai Sho for the first time.

Jun’s father, Matsumoto Junichi, is the owner of the Matsumoto Corporation, one of the biggest sport corporations in Japan, specializing in productions and sales of many kinds of sport equipment including martial arts.

Jun's body has been weak since he was born. Forget about sport, he got tired just by walking a bit or climbing the stairs. He also often felt sick and got a high fever.

Jun’s hospital life began when he was three years old. They found out that the main problem of his condition is because he has a weak heart. Jun’s family who loves Jun to death didn’t want to take a risk and decide to put Jun in a hospital. Since then, Jun never got the chance to play outside, except for some rare occasions (when he somehow manages to use his best puppy face and melts the heart of the nurse there).

Even in that condition, Jun’s parents tried their best, so that Jun wouldn’t feel bored in his hospital room. They bought him many toys, even the most recent ones. His older sister also played with him and read him story from time to time. Even the nurse and doctor sometimes stopped by just to spend time with him. Jun felt happy with the kindness given by the people around him, but even so, it didn’t stop him from feeling bored time to time, because he wanted to know more about the outside world and could actually experience real things by himself and not just only from the stories he heard.

Five years in that condition, Jun started to get better and they finally decided to try a surgery. At first, Jun’s parents didn’t agree with it. They were afraid of the worst things that might happen if it failed, but Jun managed to persuade them to agree with the idea since he wanted to get better and not just live like a living doll that needs medicines forever.

Hence, Jun underwent the surgery and it was successful…

Not perfectly.

The doctor said that even though the surgery was successful, Jun still had to do rehabilitation first and get his body accustomed to at least being able to do normal daily activities. However, even after that, Jun still couldn't do harsh exercises or he might damage his heart again. He also still couldn’t go to school yet because of that.

Little Jun’s heart broke down. He had believed that after he took the surgery, he could play like everyone else. Running around and traveling his new world with his little feet. It turned out that fate was not that nice to him. Jun felt like he had lost hope to live, because he didn’t know what to look forward in life anymore. Even when he has gotten back home, he was not happy. He still get out of his room sometimes, because he had to continue his rehabilitation, but other than that, he shut himself locked up in his room.

Because Jun still couldn’t go to school either, his father called a private tutor for him, so at least when Jun got strong enough to go to school, he wouldn’t be behind his peers. That’s when Jun started to look forward to live his life again.

Jun was curious by nature, but he didn’t expect to have this much fun learning new things even without seeing it himself. His teacher is not the passionate type, as he was calm and look sleepy most of the time, but he seemed to know what would catch Jun’s attention and how to make Jun curious and wanted to learn more and more. Jun turned out to be a smart student as well. He learned so much faster than other children around his age.

Jun’s parents were happy to see him so full of energy again, but they noticed Jun still look lonely sometime. Considering that Jun might not know how to communicate with his friend when he entered school at this rate, their parents decided that Jun needed a playmate close to his age.

Jun’s father talked to Jun about it. His father said that he had a high school friend also having a son close to Jun’s age and Jun was really happy to hear the news. He himself really did want to have a friend after all those times playing with adult after all.

-

That day has come faster than Jun thought. Now, he is walking with his father to the room where his soon-to-be friend (hopefully) has waited. Jun’s heart has started beating faster. As excited as he is, he is also a bit nervous. This is the first time for Jun to meet with a kid close to his age other than his own sister after all.

They arrived in front of the room. His father opened the door and immediately greeted the person there. Jun hid behind his father’s back while trying to take a peek of the situation in the room. He could see another boy around his age, standing there while looking at the two adults in the room who are currently exchanging greeting and small talks.

The other boy is not that much taller than Jun, but compared to Jun, he looks so much healthier. He looks like he could run around this big house and still have enough energy to run another lap. Jun felt jealous but also curious. Jun really hopes that this boy will like him and want to be his friend.

Jun was so lost in his thought, looking and analyzing that boy, that he didn’t even realize the boy was introducing himself to his father. He finally noticed his surrounding again when his father put his hand behind his back and said, “I want you to meet my son.”

Jun was pushed to stand in front of his father and his father introduced the other boy to him “Jun, this is my friend’s son, Sho.”

( _“So his name was Sho...”)_

The way Sho looked at Jun made him suddenly feel shy and lost his voice. Jun kept reminding himself that this will be his first friend and he needs to make a good impression. So even with the nervousness he has been feeling, he got to try his best to introduce himself. “I-I’m Jun.”

Well, that was not how Jun imagined this would turn out. He wanted to hit himself for being this nervous just by introducing himself in front of his new friend. How was he supposed to play with Sho at this rate?

Sho suddenly started to walk and stopped in front of him and just stared at his face. Jun is small, but he felt even smaller under the stare of this older boy. Then, Sho suddenly put his hands on Jun’s cheeks and pulled it.

(“ _H-huh?”)_

Jun never felt so surprised before this. This is the first time Jun met Sho, but Sho just went and made a close contact with him. Are kids his age supposed to play with each other like this? Jun didn’t know that.

Jun just looked at Sho and didn’t know what to do as Sho seemed didn’t want to let go of his cheeks. Unexpectedly, Sho started to pull at his cheeks even more and that started to hurt.

“Ow…”

Jun unconsciously let out a sound, voicing a little pain he felt for his cheeks. Sho, perhaps noticing that, finally let go of Jun’s cheeks and put his hands on Jun’s shoulder, then said, “Your cheeks are so soft!”

Jun froze on the spot. He thought that Sho was going to apologize, but he said that instead, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sho’s face suddenly started to look paler, he let go of Jun’s shoulder and took a step back. Even if Jun had never had a friend before, Jun somehow noticed what Sho just did to him was not a good thing.

But weirdly, Jun didn’t feel angry at all. His cheeks hurt indeed, but he felt somehow happy.

Jun has wanted everyone to treated him like a normal child, but even when he finally got out of the hospital, the attitude of the people around him didn’t really change much towards him. They still treat him like he is going to faint or get sick if he is treated a bit rough (it’s not wrong but Jun doesn’t want to admit that he is that weak). His father and the butler even still offer to carry him when they thought he had walked too much in a day. He is an 8-year-old kid for God’s sake!

That’s why Jun felt happy with what Sho did. Sho was different from any other person he has ever met before. Sho doesn’t treat him like he is a glass that will break with just a slight touch. Sho has made him felt something new he has never felt before. Jun doesn’t really know why, maybe it is because this whole situation is just so weird, or because it is a new experience for him. But he suddenly felt the need to laugh, and so he laughed.

Sho looked at him like he has gone crazy and perhaps that is not wrong. After ceasing his laugh, Jun looked at Sho and smiled to him, giving maybe the most genuine and sweetest smile he has ever shown to others since a while.

“Nice to meet you, Sho-kun.”

Yup. Jun is sure that Sho and he are going to be a good friend.

**Author's Note:**

> *Dojo = A place to study Japan's martial arts  
> *Shinai = The sword used in Kendo  
> -  
> As you can see, I will write this story from both Sho and Jun side. I thought it would be interesting if we could know what both side thought at the moment  
> This is my first time writing like this so I don't know how it will turn out, I hope it will turn out like I imagine it haha
> 
> Till next chapter!


End file.
